suspicious 404 in webmaster tools

i think my site has been hacked

[meelosh]

hi all i am freaking out as i cannot find the solution to my problem please someone help.
i have a very successful site with good pr and all the good stuff.
checking my sites health today i find a 404 not found in the web master tools with a url that's starts with mydomain/warning_this_is_english_domain_to_solve_this_problem_submit_site_in_example.com.html (not at all in my site)
when i click to the right to find out who the referrer site is it is <url removed> with some long number on the end.
i have googled this all and it seems to have hit Germany allot but at the moment i have not come out with a solution and figured out why and how they did this.
i am freaking out as this site is linked to real bad neighborhoods.
how do i get rid of this please someone help
thanks
meelosh
its my first time i need some help like this and i do not know if i have posted at the correct thread so please excuse

[edited by: encyclo at 2:56 am (utc) on Dec. 4, 2009]
[edit reason] please no references to malware sites [/edit]

[jdMorgan]

Your site hasn't been hacked. This 404 is just caused by Google following a link to your site from some other site. It's probably a fake link, and maybe that other site has been hacked, but not yours.

Just be thankful that unlike a lot of poorly-coded dynamic sites, your site returned a 404-Not Found status, instead of a 200-OK. If your site had returned a 200-OK, then you would have a problem, but with a 404, you will be fine.

Jim

[meelosh]

thank you jim for the reply i feel better now..
so i should not do any 301 and just leave the 404 until it drops off?
thank you for your advice

[jdMorgan]

404 or 403 are the two most correct and sensible responses. Anything else is either more difficult, or a really bad idea, or both.

Jim

[meelosh]

thank you jim
last question
could you enlighten me as to how these people get a url indexed under my domain name and getting google to index it?
it really blows my mind as i thought i was taking good precaution?
and thank you for your responses you have pre-empted an rum overdose.

[jdMorgan]

All anyone has to do is to publish a link to your domain with that URL-path.

That's why search engines can't/won't penalize you for incoming links to your site: They know you can't control who links to you, or how.

This is just 'noise' on the Web, and really the worst thing about it is that it messes up what otherwise should be your completely-blank GWT error report with that 404 on that junk link. It's an annoyance, but not really a problem... as long as you 404 it.

The main solutions to these kinds of problems are indirect: You can take steps to stop scrapers, scanners, and bad-bots from reading your Web pages, block other servers from accessing your site, allowing only human-driven client (browser) and known-good-robot access -- stuff like that. Lots of threads about that in our Search Engine Spider ID forum.

(BTW, "noise" and "junk" are polite words for what I really wanted to say...)

Jim

[meelosh]

thank you jim
i will be sticking around as this seems a good place (neighborhood)
thanks for your advice and explanations it is much appreciated
cheers

[phranque]

welcome to WebmasterWorld [webmasterworld.com], meelosh!

[meelosh]

thanks

[smallcompany]

mydomain/warning_this_is_english_domain_to_solve_this_problem_submit_site_in_example.com.html

This is the way how some guy is trying to get people submit their sites to his "thing" being promoted as shortcuts to sites for non-English speaking people, or whatever.

Is he really supporting something he thinks is a bright idea that he hopes to make money on, or there are other things behind, I have no idea.

I just don't like how he on purpose wrongly links to sites to get attention, plus, puts all links to various sites together on one page including adult sites, and who knows what else.

Complete idiotic approach that pisses off people around.